The mountain pine beetle is eating British Columbia from west to east, and in five years will have consumed 80% of the province's lodgepole pines. Beyond the jarring spectacle of huge dead stretches of pine forest gone russet from death and disease, the trees hold up that dwindling portion of the provincial economy that is dedicated neither to growing pot for Americans nor building condominiums for nouveau riche from China. The tiny black insect comes with a fungus that infects the outer layer of wood and kills the tree, turning its wood an eerie blue. Forestry towns are witnessing one last boom as mills ramp up to collect and process the dead trees before they rot, and for the moment there's so much wood that they're turning it into everything from furniture to concrete.
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